I have a dog named Annie.  I’ve written about her before.   She looks a little like a gremlin or Yoda from Star Wars.  I got her for my boys about a year and a half ago from the animal shelter.  When we first got her, she was very skinny and never barked.  Which was unusual because she is a mixture of a Chihuahua and a Pug.  For about 2 weeks, we didn’t hear a peep from her.  Every time the boys and I went to pet her she would cowl down.  The shelter had told me they believed she had been abused prior to me adopting her.  But there was something about her sweet face and eyes….the moment I saw her I knew she was the one for us.  Annie today is very different.  And she has found her voice….evidence of her barking ferociously at friends who knock on our door.  Her figure now resembles more of a Marilyn Monroe shape verses her early Twiggy days.  She is a very small dog overall but seems to be unaware of this as she is constantly playing, challenging dogs twice her size and more.  I like to think of her as scrappy.  She’s bow-legged and after she goes to the bathroom she scratches the grass with attitude.  Often times she drives me nuts and originally the boys were supposed to be responsible for taking her out, feeding her, grooming her.  Guess how long that lasted.  But I’m so happy we have her in our lives.  She is the sweetest thing and always happy (like most dogs)….completely different from the day we got her.  It’s amazing what a little love and tenderness can do to animals….or people for that matterJ. 

A friend of mine who we’ll call “Crazy” used a product called Surgi-Cream to remove face fuzzies.  If you don’t know what that is then you’re very lucky.  Its unwanted hair that appears on the cheeks and upper lip….more commonly seen the older people get.  The trick to Surgi-Cream is you don’t want to leave it on for more than 4 minutes max!  Longer than that, it can burn your skin.  Which is what happened to Crazy.  As a result, Crazy had dry, scaly skin in those areas and it would take a few days to heal.  She went to see her esthetician to see if she had anything to speed up the healing process.  While   there, the esthetician convinced Crazy to allow her to inject her lips with a filler at no cost because she was training someone.  However Crazy paid dearly.  The immediate results were freakish to say the least.   While she appreciated her esthetician’s generosity, she won’t be doing that again.  The picture posted is a perfect example of lip-injection-gone-wrong.  Very natural looking.   By the time she left the office, not only did she still have scaly, patchy skin from the hair-removal cream but now a freakishly large upper lip.  Plus, the procedure was very painful so her freak lip was also sore.  Fortunately, Crazy remembered that evening that two vodka martinis are an effective way to numb pain. 

The world of SEO, social media, and web marketing is driving me nuts.  I still don’t get Twitter but my 12 year old says it doesn’t matter—I need to now focus on Instagram.  My tweets mainly consist of retweets.  And rarely do they relate to beauty/fashion.  Instead, I retweet what makes me giggle:  Chelsea Handler, The Onion, etc.  Clearly there are others out there who have the same sense of humor because we’ve managed to attract some followers.  I have no idea how to measure whether or not Facebook or Twitter has actually helped our business.  I’ve been told to tweet and facebook everyday.  I don’t have that much to talk about.  I'm a single mom with 2 boys and a dog.  You can imagine how exciting my days are: wake up, run, get kids up, breakfast, carpool to school, go to work, pick up kids, fight with them about doing homework, go to soccer/football practice, cook dinner, then get the boys to bed.  Who wants to read about this life?  Not to sound ungrateful—I love my life.  But it may not be the most entertaining for others to read about.  In fact when I reread this I dozed off for 5 minutes.  I’ve tried to “check in” more on our Miss Oops facebook page.  But does anyone really care that I’m at the grocery store, getting gas, or having a glass of wine with a friend?  I know this blog has a very negative tone which is not my intent.  I’m going to keep tweeting, facebooking, and soon instagramming.  Just wondering if anyone who uses social media as a marketing tool has seen an increase in business and how do you measure it?  Does a company being on facebook or tweeting make you feel more connected to the product/company? 

My son, Sam, thinks I should start an Oops! line for kids.  His examples were, “Oops!  I forgot my homework.”  “Oops!  I was talking in class,” and “Oops!  I forgot to bring back my green folder.”  Moments later he handed me a note from the teacher that I needed to sign because he in fact, had performed the above “oops!”  I was a bit irritated.  But then he told me he had the best “Tell Not Show” story last week!  Everyone loved it.  I asked him to share it with me.  He told his classmates and school teacher about his trip to the local jail.  I had no idea what he was talking about.  Going forward, I will change some minor details so as to not embarrass anyone.  But what actually happened is completely true.  Sam and a buddy of his were being watched by a babysitter who my ex-husband and I know very well.  Apparently, a relative of the babysitter had been put in jail awaiting a trial date.  She had been involved in a car accident that was believed to be her fault.  The babysitter got a call that she had a chance to go visit her relative in jail.  What to do? What to do?  Should she a.)  reschedule the visit,  b.) call the parents of the children and let them know what the situation is or c.)  take the children with her to visit the relative in jail.  She chose option “c.”   Perhaps she thought she was doing this in their best interest?  A field trip of some sort.  Teaching the children what happens when you don’t follow the rules in life.  Sam said “it was kind of scary but she (the prisoner) seemed pretty happy given her situation.”  I can’t tell you how relieved I was to hear that.  Brendan (my ex) and I discussed this and decided it was not in Sam’s best interest to visit the local jails.  We also informed the babysitter that this probably should have been obvious.  In hindsight, she agreed.  Sam said he ended his story by telling the class he hopes he never sees the inside of a jail house again.  Instead of clapping, the classmates and his teacher just stared at him in silence with their mouths open.  I could envision a scene from South Park. I’m sure my ex and I will be regarded as Parents of the Year. 

 A couple of years ago, I noticed I was getting strands of gray hair.  I immediately went to the salon and asked my stylist of the last 15 years to please cover this STAT!  She did.  But a few weeks later, it was back.   I told her I thought I was either losing my mind or my hair was actually growing faster in warm weather.   We both agreed generally speaking, I have lost my mind.  But in this one instance, there was some logic behind the madness.  She told me our hair actually does grow faster in hotter weather.  The reason is because our bodies react to heat by increasing blood circulation to keep the body cool.  As a result of increased circulation, more nutrients get to the hair follicle boosting growth.  Studies show the average hair growth rate increases almost 40% when the weather is warmer.  Just fyi….in case you too have wondered about this phenomenon you now know that yes, weather does affect hair growth.  I can’t comment on the rest of your state of mindJ.

This past weekend I went on a walk with two of my friends and we were discussing the possible “ban on fur” in West Hollywood.  If the ordinance were to past, stores within a certain perimeter would not be able to sell items that are made of or partially made of animal fur.  While this is taking place in California, it reminded me of a scene on Sex & the City where Samantha comes back to visit New York during the winter (she was living on the west coast with Smith at the time).  She and the girls went to fashion week and Samantha was wearing a white fur coat when someone from PETA (I think) threw blood on her shouting, “Murderer!  Murderer!”  Samantha’s reaction:  “God, I miss New York.” Anyway, my friends and I were talking about when we were kids and fur coats were all the rage.  Rabbit, mink, fox, all were in and considered luxurious.  Of course, sometimes fake furs were purchased and women tried to pull them off as the real deal.  Very unfashionable.  At that time.  But as we know, both beauty and fashion trends are fleeting.  Now we will see women wearing thousand dollar real fur coats and trying to pull them off as fake.  My friend Sloan commented how she remembered wearing one of her mom’s minks and how incredibly warm it was.  My other friend commented, “yes, I believe it.  Animals have that fur for a reason.”  I don’t think she meant for women to wear.    

Here’s a sweet image:  lying in bed early Saturday morning when my little 9 year old angel, Sam, crawls in bed to snuggle up next to me.  As I’m looking at his beautiful face, I’m thinking of how blessed I am to be the mother to this little man and his brother.  He says to me “mom, you really are so beautiful.”  I smile.  He then says “why do you have brown dots here (pointing to my chest)?  It’s like hearing a record playing lovely music and then suddenly the “scratch” sound.  I told my sweet angel it was none of his business and to please go turn on the coffee pot.  Just kidding.  I told Sam those brown spots were the result of me being a sun worshipper as a teenager.  Now, I have sun damage on parts of my skin.  I understand I’m not the only one with this.  I know women ages 25yrs to 85yrs who have sun damaged skin on their face, neck, chest, arms, and legs.  And it’s really irritating.  I’ve scoured the earth looking for products to help get rid of the evidence showing the bad choices I’ve made over and over again…lying in the sun wearing baby oil.  I’ve also worked with chemists to come up with various recipes to rid myself of these marks.  Well guess what?  Miss Oops now has a NEW product that truly does this!!!!  It’s called If I Could Turn Back Time—a UV Repair cream that not only helps get rid of present sun damaged spots, but is actually formulated with a slight yellowish tint to helps blend in the spots.  Ok, this is not a cheap product:  it carries a price tag of $82.00.  But it’s absolutely worth it!  This week only we have If I Could Turn Back Time on sale—40% off!  You can try it out for $49.20 between now and Saturday so check it out and let us know what you think!  http://missoops.com/miss-oops/if-i-could-turn-back-time .

Plump Up the Volume, Plump Up the Volume, Plump Up the Volume, dance, dance!  Twenty-dollars to the first person who can tell me what song I'm referring to!  In the meantime, the product I'm referring to is Miss Oops' Plump Up the Volume Collagen Serum (third product from the left).  This new beauty solution product is one of four new items we are bringing to you this month!  Plump Up the Volume is a collagen serum that helps produce and maintain the key ingredient that gives us chubby cheeks and prevents the "hollow" appearance often seen as we age.  Also new to our beauty arsenal, If I Could Turn Back Time--a UV repair cream that works miracles!  Formulated with a slight yellow-ish tint, this cream helps repair sun damaged skin and is perfect for the neck, chest, arms and legs.  Next up, Reign in Rosacea.  There is no other serum like this on the market.  This product was formulated with actual customers who experience rosacea.  The treatment serum fights and controls the redness and is especially formulated with an epidermal growth factor.  And finally in our new line up, You're So Not Vein.  This is the go-to product for women who suffer from spider veins.  The tinted-moisturizer helps promote circulation and in general good capillary health.  It's formulated to help blend in, therefore masking the appearance of broken capillaries (aka spider veins).  We'll keep you updated as we bring these to market...they will be available via www.MissOops.com exclusively.  Be sure and check it out while we offer special pricing for the first week!